Pärnu

Ever since we arrived in the Baltics just over two weeks ago, we have marvelled at the beauty of the countryside and the freshness of the air in far northern Europe. It seems that everywhere we look is a verdant paradise. The weather also has given us an unbroken sequence of glorious, sunny cycling days. Yes it really would be a fantastic place to live - for six months of the year.

Of course the biggest drawback to living in this part of the word is the severe winters that you would have to endure. With temperatures plummeting to as low as -30 C, snow and ice everywhere and extremely long hours of darkness, this requires a very special type of person to be able to survive. When you consider how bad the winters must be, it is easy to see why they love the return of summer so much.

This morning we left Sigulda and had a quick visit to a huge Bob Sleighing complex and a large cave, before driving 110 km further north to the border with Estonia. The old border crossings are now nothing but a reminder of the old days when crossing a border was a very serious and complicated matter. The border of Latvia and Estonia still had a large building there, but it now serves as a roadhouse to feed hungry bus tourists.

Our task today was very simple. All we had to do was follow a single quiet road for about 35 km near the Baltic Coast. For most of the way both sides of the road were filled with magnificent forests, from time to time interspersed with tiny villages. Although many of the houses were pretty basic, they did not appear to be particularly poor. The road was excellent for riding and the weather was absolutely perfect. One interesting feature of many of the houses was large nuclear bomb shelters in the yards. This is a reminder of strategic this region was in the Cold War days, when the population were expecting an attack at any moment.

The biggest disappointment of the day's ride was the lunchtime restaurant (or complete lack of). The map showed that there would be a restaurant at about the 20 km mark,, however when we reached that point we found, to our utter dismay, only a locked toilet block with a couple of overturned tables outside. Fortunately there was a so called "bakery" a little further back and at least we were able to buy a cup of coffee and a small cake.

The road eventually turned into a major highway and that became our signal to leave the bikes and return to the bus. The final transfer took us to the seaside city of Parnu. It took me all of two minutes to fall in love with this place. With its beautifully landscaped gardens and interesting mixture of wooden buildings, I think it really is the prettiest town we have so far visited.

After checking into the Legend Hotel I went for a wander to the Old Town, arriving just in time to watch a group of colourfully dressed local women singing and dancing in the main square. It was a glorious way to end a magical cycling day.Leia mais